Rooted in social psychology, wise interventions (WIs) are brief yet effective tools that target core psychological processes and have the potential to produce long-term positive outcomes. This longitudinal study examined the effects of an established values essay-writing intervention (Cohen et al. 2006) and its psychodramatic variant, incorporating role play and role exchange, on life satisfaction. Intervention effects in these two experimental groups were compared to those in a control group (routine essay writing). Participants included 52 refugees and 33 volunteers working with refugees, as well-being and mental health are increasingly critical issues for both groups. Contrary to hypotheses, the results did not show significant benefits in life satisfaction for the two intervention conditions compared to the control condition. Although a descriptive-level increase in life satisfaction was observed for refugees in the values essay-writing condition, no such changes emerged in the psychodrama-oriented intervention. Post hoc analyses, incorporating individual differences in mentalization abilities, suggested that refugees with lower mentalization scores experienced increased life satisfaction in the essay-writing condition. However, this effect did not reach significance after applying a Bonferroni correction. The discussion emphasizes the exploratory nature of the study and recommends prioritizing wise interventions for more vulnerable or high-risk groups, including individuals with low mentalization abilities.
